Issue 144: Cannock Chasing Time

Two mountain bike races, same venue, 30 years apart.

Words & Photography Geoff Waugh

Time, he’s waiting in the wings

Take a look at the above photos. I took them both at the same venue – Cannock Chase, the vast expanse of woodland in the Midlands in the UK – and there is roughly 30 years between them. I say roughly because I think it is more. Looking at the jerseys of riders in the black and white pic I would guess this was 1989 or 1990 at the latest, which makes it over 32 years! Phew! And just as I cannot pin down the exact year (although someone out there will be able to, I’m sure), I can’t remember the section of the forest where the first race was held.

I do know the name of the second location though. I remember like it was yesterday, because at the time of writing it actually was yesterday. It was the Cannock round of the HSBC National Points Series and it was at Tackeroo, the part of Cannock Chase which hosts events.

Compare and contrast the two images. You youngsters, shake with mirth at those pioneers of early UK cross-country racing. There is no start gantry or any infrastructure to be seen, just a guy giving out the race instructions before the off. There is a conspicuous absence of suspension, front or rear, and no clip-in pedals, just plain old toe clips and straps. Lycra covers on polystyrene helmets and numbers are attached with safety pins to the left shoulder for the lap markers. Number boards? What are they? This looks like the Experts field. I can still put names to (some) faces.

In the colour image, the Elite Women’s field have been given the one-minute warning for their start. Sponsors’ hoardings adorn the start/finish corridor and on the riders’ legs under their socks they all wear transponders to relay race info to the lap counters. The bikes are carbon fibre with front and rear shocks and 29in wheels with tubeless tyres. Socks are long, shoes have stiff carbon soles, clothing is tighter and usually all in one piece, not a jersey and shorts.

“… anytime in the next 30 seconds..”

Race starts are still the same, though. Heart rate is elevated, tension is high, focus is everything and then it’s the same mad flat out sprint and jockeying for a good position at, or near, the head of the field. In the lower black and white image in the second row, off and running is Tim Flooks, the long-time RockShox mechanic and the man who founded TF Tuned suspension before going back to the spanners. Next to him, mounting his bike, is Dafydd Roberts who with his wife Sian, a former World Cup racer and national champ, ran the successful Old Skool MTB Accommodation at Coed y Brenin, Wales.

In the upper picture, dead centre, there’s another UK Champion and World Cup podiumer (I made that word up, but it will come to be eventually, sure as winningest is winningest) Barrie Clarke, the Raleigh stalwart.

Leading the pack in the colour image is Corran Carrick-Anderson, son of Crawford the former World Cup downhill pro. Can you say ‘chip’ and ‘block’?

Talking to riders who raced those early events at Cannock reveals they seemed to mostly recall long rollercoaster sections of trail and what a blast they were to ride. And the rain, but that’s standard fare. It really did hammer down a couple of times, though. There was a lot more fire road included back then, which was good, since the rigid bikes weren’t nearly as able when negotiating sinewy, rooty singletrack.

Tech no

Although modern bikes are way better than their predecessors, it was deemed necessary by the powers that be to incorporate technical zones (‘pits’, if you will) where folk with spanner knowledge and lots of spares are allowed to repair riders’ bikes – MID RACE! Those hardy racers of yore snatched a plastic cup of water and were grateful. All mechanical repairs were down to the rider who carried spares on the bike or about their person, and many practised changing a tube to be as fast as possible when the time inevitably came.

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Prints of darkness

I can see from my more recent images how much emphasis I began to put on taking photographs of the actual course itself. In the past it was all about getting nicely composed, upright images of the rider. Upright because they were all shot for magazines where front cover or full single page use brought the most financial return.

The advent of digital meant that we could go deep into the forest without the need for adding artificial light in the form of on camera flash or off-camera strobes. This ‘tell it like it is’ method is much more akin to way I began shooting with film, where you pushed the ISO upwards to achieved the desired affect; usually a high enough shutter speed to freeze the action. And for me, there’s something about a line in the dirt worn by countless tyres, or a root polished to a nice patina, that tells a story. Now print magazines can crop a cover from an image shot in landscape format such is the resolution of modern digital cameras. What?!

There wasn’t a descent in yesterday’s course as steep as the one in the old image here – another reason to think it was a different part of the forest. Don’t think the riders minded though, as the downhill bits looked as swoopy and fun as could be had on a mountain bike. A couple of drop-offs and a sweet twisty gulley kept the riders honest.

Older I get, faster I was

Watching the racers fly around the circuit got me wondering how much the average speeds would differ with 30-odd years between them. The bikes are way better off-road tools, sports science and training methods are more refined and improved. Clothes are lighter and more aero.

OGs (Original Grinners)

A can of pop and a wipe down with the magic sponge. Stopping at the services because the energy window is wide open. Feeling a bit jaded the following day. Then onto the next race, the next weekend. That part of cross-country racing has always been the same whatever the decade.

FYI the man who won back then was Fred Salmon of the all-conquering Peugeot team. There’s some familiar faces in this story if you are of a certain vintage.

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